The present invention relates to an apparatus for transfer printing of textile, a heat transfer base material and heat transfer printing process thereof, and more particularly, to an apparatus of absorptive-type paperless transfer printing and the process thereof, which are capable of resolving the contradiction between tensile strength and heat transfer.
Among various printing techniques for textile, heat transfer printing is especially popular due to its capability of printing extremely fine patterns, simple process, low investment and rapid benefit. The previous heat transfer printing processes usually take following steps: At first, the patterns are printed with gravure press onto paper to obtain heat transfer printing paper; then the heat transfer printing paper is attached to the cloth, and they are ironed with high temperature and high pressure on the heat transfer printing machine to produce printed cloth. This printing process prevents waste and pollution of water which usually occur in pattern printing, and the products produced with this technology are featured with strong stereo sensation and well-arranged patterns. However, this technology is associated with a great deal of paper consumption, and indirect waste and pollution of water in paper production, which result in high production cost. To resolve the afore-mentioned problems, Chinese patent No. 97111774.8 suggests using a metallic foil to replace heat transfer base material so as to overcome the problem of indirect waste and pollution of water in the heat transfer printing technology. However, metallic foil is easy to wrinkle. And, in thermal printing process, the heat transfer base material must be put tightly against the cloth to be printed, otherwise the print products may have problems of color difference or unclear patterns. Therefore, the metallic foil has to endure big pulling force. For the same material, bigger thickness results in higher tensile strength but poorer heat transfer performance. It is a contradiction between tensile strength and heat transfer performance. That is why traditional paperless heat transfer printing and dyeing machine cannot be widely used.